With regard to the operating and use possibilities of an applying device and with respect to the substance application result, decisive importance is attached to the squeegee used and/or the squeegee device comprising the same. Squeegee devices are known (DE-AS No. 1 135 856), in which a magnetizable squeegee can be magnetically pressed in the direction of a magnetic beam extending along the squeegee and arranged below the substrate path. It is also known to provide on the back of a sheet spreading doctor a magnetizable strip fixed to the doctor over the application width, so that by means of the strip, the doctor can be pressed against a substrate by the magnetic force of a magnetic beam (DE-OS No. 34 19 590). In a further squeegee device, (DE-OS No. 25 44 784) a squeegee roller can be magnetically pressed onto the back of a separately arranged profile strip spaced from the rolling surface of the roller. In addition, devices with mechanically pressable squeegees are known, the squeegee being laterally fixed and pressed towards the substrate. In the magnetic pressing device, the magnetizable mass of the squeegee or a support member connected non-detachably and in one piece thereto must correspond to the size of the desired magnetic pressing force. This leads to squeegees having undesired distortion forces, limiting their work and profile.
The usability of known squeegee devices is also unsatisfactory, because they must be designed and used only for specific applications. A squeegee which can be pressed onto a separately arranged profile strip must be specially adapted to the strip and must be handled in the form of several individual components. In each case, within the known devices, the squeegee must be sufficiently solid for the relatively large pressing forces and therefore be designed as a function of the contact pressure. Such solid squeegees are less suitable in applications where the width of the squeegee is greater than a few meters due to their inherent rigidity and the resulting undesired curvature. They require relatively large magnetic or mechanical pressing forces leading to a correspondingly high energy expenditure. Mounting supports of the known squeegee devices frequently lead to disadvantageous tilting effects with regard to the squeegees. Relatively thin and long squeegees, such as sheet coating doctors, roller doctors or round doctor strips are very sensitive and can in particular be damaged by bending, so that their individual handling is very critical.